Colleges and universities should require all faculty to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach.Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the posit

Requiring college and university faculty to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach would yield many extraordinary benefits for students, for faculty members, and for the college or university at which they teach. Students would gain invaluable insight into “real” world applications of what they are taught, faculty would garner a new perspective on their research and create new professional relationships, and colleges and universities would be able to build stronger relationships with the communities they serve. The latter benefit is likely the most significant one: a faculty engaged in the community not only prepares students for work in the real world, but also contributes to improving life for all citizens of the community.

A common lament heard from students is that their teachers live in an "ivory tower" disconnected from the “real world” and its practicalities. Many students feel that professors in all fields, whether the humanities or the sciences, focus too narrowly on theoretical concerns rather than on practical career matters. That is to say, students often find their teachers' pedagogy to be esoteric and unrelated to the practicalities that they will face upon graduating from college and launching their careers. For instance, a political science major might feel frustrated that her professor devotes a significant number of class hours to elaborating the rational actor model but little time to the particulars of actual statecraft. Requiring faculty to work in professions related to their field of study would help chip away at the image of the professor living in an “ivory tower;” their lessons would be more grounded in the "real world" and their in-class examples and scenarios would reflect actual experience in the field. The political science professor, for example, who had work experience in the government, whether local or at the state or national level, could relate to students the strategies she used in advocating for or negotiating policies with government officials. Faculty members would have greater first-hand experience in their academic discipline, which they could then relate to their students, thereby better preparing students for work in their field.

While yielding critical advantages for students, faculty members will also personally benefit from such a requirement. The expertise acquired from the professor’s work experience would complement her scholarly knowledge, thus providing her greater breadth of knowledge and also bringing a new perspective to her scholarly endeavors. A practical perspective gained from work in the field would give faculty fodder for research questions and provide new insights as to how her subject matter applies to the everyday context of her field of study. To return to the example of the political science professor, her theories and her research could now be more informed by her experience working with governmental officials, perhaps increasing the likelihood that her research would make relevant contributions to the field. More pragmatically, working in the field would also allow faculty to network and to create relationships of professional import, now not only with their peers in the academy, but also with those in the work sector. Faculty would benefit from this by having a larger group of experts with whom to discuss research questions, while this new and expanded network would also benefit students, since professors would be in a position to create internship opportunities while in school and possibly even job opportunities upon graduation.

Perhaps most tellingly, such a requirement would benefit colleges and universities, as well as the communities they serve. A more practically savvy faculty is a faculty better equipped to contribute research findings and products that have a direct application to the community and to the greater context in which the academic institution exists. They are more likely to contribute to important endeavors such as the development of green energy, urban planning projects, or improving services for the community’s citizens. College and university administrators constantly work to establish strong relationships with the communities in which they exist, with the government and its programs, and with corporate and not-for-profit businesses. They do this, not only to fund raise, but because they know that a college or university that teaches just for teaching’s sake, or researches simply for research’s sake, without any sense of contributing to the community or preparing their students to be informed, involved, contributing citizens of their communities, is a college or university with no true animating purpose. Boasting a faculty that is eagerly engaged in the work community, in a variety of ways, will only serve to demonstrate just how relevant and "plugged in" the academic community really is.

While it is true that there would be practical challenges--including adjusting faculty teaching loads and coordinating faculty leave time--that would need to be addressed, the overall benefits of implementing this policy cannot be overstated. It is also true that some disciplines may lend themselves more readily to direct work application than others; for those disciplines that do not, more creative work opportunities will need to be devised. These issues, however, should not deter colleges and universities from pursuing this otherwise promising idea, and are matters that the deans and administrators could easily resolve with some creative thinking. For the reasons cited above, students, faculty, and their colleges and universities would do well to require all faculty to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach.